At the time I wrote this freeflying was still fairly new and free and I thought, or at least hoped, that I was kidding about compulsory moves and rules and nationals and stuff.

Unfortunately that's what happened. It now appears that the freeflyers are doing word for word and move for move exactly what the relative workers did in the late 60's and mid 70's - trading freedom and art for uniforms and badges.

That means that in a few years a new generation will come along and rebel against the grim, white knuckle freeflying format. I wonder what they will come up with?

Subject: Frames of Reference 3 of 5 - Closed Frameworks
Date: (posted October 1997)
----

Subject: Re: Freeflying

Oh, now here's an interesting post!

From: Rick Nelson

>Belly-flying is still kind of fun, but it can be too much like work. 
>You have to be in a certain place, at a certain time, or else everyone
>gets all upset. If you're really good at it you get a medal or
>certificate, but in the meantime you lose sight of why you started
>skydiving in the first place...it's so freaking fun.

Reminds me of something I wrote to some Swedish friends once.

    ... (deleted)

   "ESP ... Ecstasy Sensory Perception ... Do you dive out the door
    with your ecstasy sensors extended?

    Creation  Recreation  Exploration  We are mapping out a whole new
    area of human experience.  To fly is one of man's oldest dreams.
    Skydivers are the first people in history to have more than a few
    seconds direct experience.  It is freedom and expression and open
    ended ... and doing it in a closed framework is unharmonious and
    wastes a lot of energy."

    ... (deleted)

I believe it is the closed framework - the quantitative how fast, how many,
how big approach that causes the problem.

Grass roots skydivers create an activity or a form. Then some one
simplifies it, strips out all the hard to measure stuff, and creates
a competition based on that. Then regular weekend skydivers start
imitating the competitive form.

Why?

People learned how to be stable. The first freefall competition was
holding a heading.

People learned how to turn and loop and roll. The next freefall
competition was a standard turn-turn-loop-turn-turn-loop.

I used to see people with no intention of ever competing go out on a
Sunday afternoon and do turn-turn-loop-turn-turn-loop and call it a jump.

Why?

People learned how to consistently get together in a circle.
The next competition was speed stars.

People learned how to make several hookups in a row.
The next competition was sequential.

People would do sequential but except for a few students here and
there who didn't know any better you could hardly get anybody to fly
no contact or hop over each other or ...

Why?

It almost broke loose with freestyle but then came the dreaded words ...

Compulsory Moves.

It made my brain hurt and my heart ache to see compulsory moves in the
same sentence with freestyle.

Is there someone out there thinking about compulsory moves for a free fly
event? Almost certainly. I don't even want to know about it.

What about the new Sit Fly Sequential Event?

And where are they going to hold the Head Down Nationals?

I don't even want to know about it.

----

I thought when I started this that it was going to be about how flying
style and body position are two orthogonal discussions but that must
be another post.

I do have one question though. What is Free Flying? I like the sound of
it. It's a good word - like Skydance. But I don't actually know what it
is. Are there any definitions / descriptions / ... ?


>Freeflying, on the other hand, is like running naked in the rain on acid.

Oh! Well! Why didn't you say so in the first place :-) :-)

Yes
   Feel the rain
      Through the window pane

      Of mind
   Of being

Very intuitive


Skratch

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